DATA ON LOCATION OF SALMON'S ALMIRANTA

Handwritten at top: "Named Santo Christo de San Roman y Nuestra

Senora del Rosario".

1.        Salmon to Torres, Palmar de Ayz, 4 Aug 1715.

"As for the treasure belonging to the King and to

Private persons carried in the Almiranta's hold, it has been set

free from the first reef it hit and is now over sand in four

fathoms of water. Off this ship we have recovered nothing,

except for a few boxes or chests which came ashore in the pieces

of the cabins off this ship."

2.        Mendez, Pilot of La Olandesa, St Augustine, 7 Aug 1715.

States that no victuals escaped from the Almiranta.

3.        Salmon to Virrey of Mexico, at Ayz in 27d 50m, 8 Aug 1715.

"The Almiranta under my command broke into three

pieces; in the bow and stern sections those of us who could

managed to escape. The main hold or center section of the ship,

in which all of the silver and cargo was stored, stayed in four

or five fathoms of water and not a single chest or leather bag of

silver reached the shore ...on my ship one hundred men drowned .."

4.        Salmon to Casa Torres, Palmar de Ayz, 28 Aug 1715.

"Yesterday they went dragging for the hull of the

Almiranta and it was found. Two chests were recovered as proof

that this is the part where the treasure was loaded and tomorrow,

weather permitting, they will recover more chests."

5.        Armenta to Casa Torres, Palmar de Ayz, 2 Sept 1715.

"They found the hull of the Almiranta by dragging and

have commenced to salvage it. They have recovered 147 closed

chests of silver and about 80,000 to 90,000 pesos in loose

coins..." In another letter from Alorburu xxxxxx that bad

weather prevented them from finding more treasure xxxx they

xxxxx finish salvaging in two weeks time.

6.        Salmon to the King, Palmar de Ayz, 20 Sept 1715.

"We were hit by a bad storm ...the main mast was badly

damaged, the rudder broke in many pieces, and"the bow and fore

mast were destroyed." Using all human diligence possible we

dropped two anchors in 12 fathoms water (about 66 feet-JH), but

they dragged and after two hours we were thrown on some reefs in

four fathoms of water. The 2nd time the ship hit the reef the

ship broke into three pieces. The center of the ship stayed

below the water, but the bow and stern were thrown closer to

shore, which was responsible for saving most of the people.

However, 82 people drowned .."

7.        Palacio to Frigiliana, Havana, 28 Sept 1715.

"The Almiranta broke up ...no victuals were saved ... 170

chest of silver have been saved so far."

PAGE 51.

SALMON'S ALMIRANTA – TWO

8.        Lima to Viceroy of Mexico, Havana, 19 Oct 1715.

"We also aided our Admiral Salmon and his people, and

the same with the survivors of the Capitana which was wrecked at

a distance of ten leagues from my Real."

9.        Armenta to Virrey de Mexico, Havana, 21 Oct 1715.

"Salmon and I stayed there to supervise the search for

silver in the wrecks of the Capitana and Almiranta, at the cost

of great labor and fatigue which, thanks to God, they found at a

cannon shot distance from shore (isn't clear if speaking about

both the "C" and "A" or just one of them) in three fathoms of

water and with a portion of divers we began the salvage work and

began recovering treasure from both wrecks. At this time we have

under safe storage about 3 millions from all the ships."

10.        News reaches San Sebastian, Spain, 14 Nov 1715.

The Almiranta was lost in 3 fathoms water.

11.        Virrey de Mexico to King, 29 Nov 1715.

"The only fortunate thing about this disaster is the

recovery of the treasure which was found in the wrecks of the

11. (Continued)

Capitana and Almiranta, These ships are broken into pieces and

are submerged, even so they have been able to recover treasure .."

12.        Escobar to Casa Torres, 4 Feb 1716.

States that the distance between the Reals of the

Capitana and Almiranta is three leagues.

13.        Eliza to Torres, 9 Feb 1716.

"Porta has reported that the English have only

recovered 5 or 6 thousand pesos from the Almiranta and Capitana,

and this with much difficulty as they were unable to locate the

main hulls of these wrecks."

14.        Vatican Document.

"The Almiranta broke in half and left its bottom in 3

fathoms of water."

15.        Duro, Armada Espanola, Vol VI, pp 121.

"Ubilla's Almiranta, even though it ran aground a

stone's throw from shore (?), lost 123 men because of the

battering of the waves." (Undoubtedly referring to the top decks

of the ship. Many must have died smashing against the inshore

reefs- JHl.

16.        Interesting point. In all the early correspondence between

       the survivors and at Augustine they mention that the

       disaster took place 40 leagues from St Augustine. This

       would be 120 nautical miles (Not really; using 3.4 NM

       to the league it works out to 136 nautical miles- JH).

       From St Augustine to Cape Canaveral is 95 miles. The

       Cape is in 28d 27m and deducting 25 miles from this

       places the disaster in 28d 02m, which isn't too far off

       from the Cabin site. Remember that in the early days

       following the disaster they did not know about the

       Concepcion wrecking at the Cape. Note that in letter

       from Salmon date 8 Aug 1715 he states that wrecksite is

       25 leagues or 75 miles from St Augustine. On page 32

       (a) of the Rodriquez translation he has a document

       stating that Salmon's "A" was wrecked 48 leagues more

       or less from St Augustine.